A young girl was taken to Victoria General Hospital with non life-threatening injuries Wednesday after being stuck by a car in a Langford shopping area parking lot.
The girl, described by an eyewitness as age 6 or 7, was walking with her mother along a sidewalk behind the Frontrunners store in the Goldstream Station mall when a woman drove over the curb and struck her.
“The woman in (a) red car, just came up, popped the curb and hit the girl and then the mom screamed,” said eyewitness Chris Sundby, who was working in the athletic wear store at the time. “She tried to put it into reverse or whatever, but she ended up driving further up, almost onto the girl.”
Sundby said the driver, an elderly woman, eventually did reverse off the curb and stopped the car, as he scrambled to find a phone to call 911 to alert police.
“The mom was hysterical and the daughter was crying and the people started running over,” he said. “I think the doctor from the medical clinic ran over.”
West Shore RCMP Const. Joanne Harrison reported that police were called at 11:38 a.m. and officers reached the scene shortly after helping clear up an accident on the Trans Canada Highway (see story age A7).
The driver may have medical issues, she said, and appeared to have overcorrected her steering following a mishap with a parked vehicle in the lot.
Harrison said the driver first scraped a car near the Pizza Hut, and after talking with the owner of the vehicle, pulled out and hit a curb.
From there she appeared to overcorrect her steering and headed toward the girl and her mother.
“The child was pushed back onto the main store entrance,” Harrison said. “We are very lucky that she is not suffering any severe injures at this point that we know of.”
The driver of the car was also shaken up, distressed and concerned for the well being of the young child. The woman was also taken to the hospital for medical attention.
alim@vicnews.com